This is why we don't leave the Vault
by Tales From The Wastes
Summary: Three Vault dwellers escape from their home into the wastes, their only goal is survival, but the thing about the wastes is that it will eat you alive if you don't know what your doing.
1. Openening and First Contact

A/N This story is done in the way of what it would be like for the average waste lander/vault dweller, its not about any special characters and doesn't play a role into the primary story line for Fallout. Its simply a tale of three vault dwellers who took their luck with the wastes.

This is my first story so heavy reviews are welcome. A/N End

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

**Somewhere in the wastes...**

A vault opens and two men step out, these two vault dwellers are known as Marcus and Arthur. They have little on them, Arthur only wearing only his vault suit with some supplies, Marcus having the same except for a baton he'd wrenched from a guard he'd beaten to near death during his escape.  
Marcus had been planning on leaving the vault for months. He was almost ready when his plans blew up in his face leaving him hiding in a corner like a terrified fox, but like any animal stuck in a corner, he fought back. Clawing and tearing his way through the tunnels that used to be his home. It was more coincidence than anything else that Arthur had been planning on leaving the vault as well, in the rush of the moment they joined together and made a victorious escape of their old home.  
Now they stood there looking out into their freedom. A small suburb that had barely survived the war was the closest thing to civilization they could see, it was surrounded by rocky hills that hid their view from the rest of the wasteland.

Marcus began walking for the suburb and Arthur followed close behind, neither spoke to the other while they walked simply because neither had anything to say. Each had dreamed of the outside lands for years, they had heard tales of the lands outside, the pain and sorrow, the open and free lands, they knew it wasn't a paradise, but they still wanted, needed the freedom.

Arthur walked to the remains of a building first. The building only had a few support beams that still stood where the walls should have been, rubble was the remainder of the floor. Arthur took a delicate step through the support beams into what was the living room, he knelt down and slowly sifted through the rubble and ash. What came next was a depressing sight for Arthur, his hand got caught on something so he pulled it up, it was a little girls old doll head. He was holding it by the hair, it had an eye missing and was completely gray except for a black scorch mark along its cheek. Arthur stared at it for a moment, considering who might have owned it before, how it was left here and how it was likely made in some factory far away. Marcus called to Arthur to help him search a different house, Arthur put the dolls head into his pocket and walked away.

This house unlike the other, was still standing. Its walls are still solid enough to support its own weight, but all of its windows were blown away. When Marcus walked over to it he peered through the front window to try to spot out any threats. Inside was a simple living room, there was a couch on the opposite wall and it was facing the window Marcus was looking through, there was also an open stairway going sideways up the wall behind the couch. There weren't any threats to spot out just yet so Marcus decided to try to lure them out, he walked over to the front door and knocked on it once with the back of his baton, but to his surprise the hinges on the door had almost completely rusted away causing the door to fall over on contact, a small cloud of dust flew into the air quickly as it hit the ground with a solid thud, Marcus waited to see if anything would come out.

Arthur walked over to Marcus holding a six foot, round, piece of wood that was sharpened at the end like a spear that he found while walking over.  
Marcus turns to Arthur and says "Follow me and be careful." Arthur nods in agreement and they walk into the house carefully walking over the door. They reach the end of the door and Marcus steps on a floorboard only to have it creak loudly, it doesn't seem like it will support his weight so he quickly lifts his foot off and does a test step on a different floorboard, it creaks a little but holds steady so they continue on taking careful steps to avoid collapsing into the unknown. They walk to the bottom of the stairs, a doorway going into the kitchen is in front of them.

"We should go upstairs" Said Marcus, "Alright" Arthur replied "you got the lead."  
They made their way up the stairs still being careful not to break any floorboards, once they made it to the top they were on a platform that went to their right into a hallway that had three doors to their left and two to their right.  
"Don't worry" Arthur said "I got this." He walked over to the first door on his right, Marcus following behind. Arthur prepared himself in front of the door and kicked it directly in the center, lucky for him this door was still strong so his leg didn't go straight through, instead the latch of the door broke off revealing the contents inside of the room inside.

The sight of a radroach is never a pretty one, you always think you've seen enough of them to no longer care, but it's like when you're a child and you see a spider on a toy you just picked up, you simply cannot get used to it and the panic that overcomes you is one that simply screams at you to run.

So when our two vault dwellers spotted a radroach in the room they were about to enter the screaming urge to run overtook them, Arthur ran through the hallway, down the stairs and outside with no thought as to whether the floor would hold him or not, Marcus then ran after him, but stopped at the stairs because he remembered how creaky they were and had a feeling that it probably wouldn't hold his weight, so Marcus decided to slide down the rail instead, but he never checked if the rail was still stable so as soon as Marcus hopped on the rail, the supports snapped causing him to fall off over the ledge and straight into the living room below. Luckily for Marcus the couch was right below him so he landed with a solid thud the impact sending a dull pain along his rib cage but not enough to stop him from getting back up and bolting out the front door to join Arthur.  
They each stood there, waiting for the radroach to come, but the thing about most radroaches is they usually come in groups...


	2. Combat and Afterwards

A/N Well I meant to write more, but I've been getting a lot of writers block recently so its been a challenge to write down this chapter. I'll be working on the next chapter and I should hopefully have it out by next week. A/N End

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

They stood there, waiting, they could hear the radroaches coming from within the house, the fluttering of their wings and the clicking of their pincers as they prepared to attack the survivors.

"What the hell do we do!" Arthur said in a near panic "I've never had to fight anything before!"  
"Don't worry" Marcus said "I've fought radroaches before, if there's only a few then we shouldn't have an issue, but..."  
"But what!" Arthur repeated to Marcus.  
"If there's a large group of them" Marcus said "then we might have some trouble"  
"Well" Arthur said "we should get out o-" "No!" Marcus interrupted "This is the best spot for us to hold them off at. Don't worry, we'll make it through this, just hold tight" he give Arthur a reassuring smile even though he was feeling a little anxious from the sound of the radroaches.

The first radroach walked out of the door, Marcus went over to it and kicked the radroach, it didn't hurt the damned thing much so Marcus slammed his baton down onto the radroaches head, sending a crushing blow straight through its exoskeleton, killing it instantly. Another radroach came out through the doorway, it jumped at Arthur right when he was going in to stab it, the radroach only succeeded in jumping straight into Arthur's spear, skewering itself, dying soon after.  
The rest of the radroaches, who were hidden within the house, scurried off after seeing how easily killed their fellows were, Marcus and Arthur stood back, waiting for something worse to show up. It took until after the noise of the radroaches disappeared into the home and the eerie silence of the wastes came back, before Marcus and Arthur let their guard down.

"See?" Marcus said, relief clearly flowing over his body "I told you we'd be ok."  
"Bullshit" Arthur replied, also relaxing "You were just as fucking scared as me."  
Marcus smirked and his stomach growled "Either which way." He said, changing the topic "I'm hungry, you want to go eat in the kitchen?"  
"You mean" Arthur said, with a perplexed face "Go back into that fucking house?"  
"Well" Marcus said, looking around "Either we eat out here where someone can easily snipe us, or we can go in and eat where we know the worst thing that will attack us are some radroaches."  
"...Fine" Arthur said in a grumble.

They walked back into the house slowly, looking around they couldn't spot any radroaches so they continued on over to the kitchen, taking care not to step on the bad floorboard.  
Inside of the kitchen was a table straight across the wall from the door that goes to the living room and another door going out to what was the back yard the rest of that side of the room was bare, there were shelves going along the opposite wall, with a fridge at the end of it.  
The two vault dwellers sat at the table and each pulled out their supplies. Arthur had two water bottles and a can of beans, Marcus pulled out his two cans of beans.

"Is this all we've got?" Marcus said looking over everything, with a disappointing glare.  
"Yeah" Arthur said and he looked outside "Maybe we should try cooking up those radroaches for some extra meat?"  
"How are we going to get a fire?" Marcus said eyeing Arthur "Besides those things are loaded with radiation, why do you think we never ate them in the vault."  
"Oh, right" Arthur said looking back to their food "Well let's...split a can of beans and wash it down with a drink of water?"  
"Sounds good" Marcus replied. They began eating "So" Arthur said while looking down at his simple meal "Why'd you leave the vault?"  
"I've been in the vault too long." Marcus replied "Not to mention, I can pretty much fix any pre-war junk I've come across. People out here need my help a lot more than the people in the vault and everyone in the vault believed that world is lost...I just can't accept that train of thought. You?"  
"Well actually me and a friend were going to try to leave together," Arthur said "I actually thought you were him when we met up"  
"Do you know what happened to him?" Marcus asked, with a worried look on his face. He glanced over at the baton, remembering the guard he'd beaten to near death, Jackson was the guard's name. "I really don't know," Arthur said watching Marcus "But he wasn't a guard so you're good"  
Marcus sighed and looked back at Arthur "I hope Jackson is okay," Marcus said, looking back down "I didn't want to use that much force on him, I was almost out until he got in my way."  
"I hope so too" Arthur said looking at the baton "he's a good guy too, I really liked his son Peter, he was a good pitcher on the softball team."  
"Yeah" Marcus said "So, who was your friend back in the vault?"  
"Max" Arthur replied.  
"Maximilian!" Marcus said with a look of confusion "But he seemed so...happy in the vault."  
"Yeah," Arthur said "I thought he was too."

They continued their meal in silence wondering what could drive a seemingly content, happy person to want to leave his home...


End file.
